Zachariah watched the changing numbers on his board and the sky in front of him as

he flew. The Rocket wouldn’t be able to stay in the air much longer if Gold Bug

couldn’t fix the problem. And they still had a handful of fliers circling the race course

like vultures.

The machinist closed his eyes and thought for a moment. How could they get out of

this? How could he keep his daughter and assistant safe from harm?

He needed the Rocket to be faster than what they had dreamed of when they had built

her.

Zachariah opened his eyes. He knew what had to be done. He didn’t like it.

“Bolan, take the stick,” he said. He unstrapped from his chair. “I need you not to hit

anything, and let Knife do what he’s doing.”

“All right,” said the boy. He unstrapped from his seat. After a minute of clumsy

exchanging of places, he sat in the pilot’s chair. Zachariah stood on the deck.

“I’m going back to the engine compartment,” said Zachariah. “Don’t take any risks.

Don’t hit anything.”

“The power is going down fast,” said Bolan. “I won’t be able to keep her in the air at

this rate.”

“I’m going to try to help Gold Bug fix that,” said Zachariah. “Do not hit the belly jets

while he is out there.”

“We can handle this, Da,” said Sola. “There is a lake not far from here. We can aim

for that. Hardy will make sure that Gold Bug is protected.”

The beetle clacked its mandibles at the mention.

“All right,” said Zachariah.

He staggered to the compartment door separating the engine from the rest of the ship.

He opened it up and slipped inside. He looked at the glowing rods and coils before

moving to the changing number squares flipping around on a dashboard hooked to

the engine. One of the boxes indicated problem areas for him to check.

Something must have been severed by the explosion he had tried to avoid.

He knelt down and pulled access panels out of the way. He scanned various wires and

components, using his finger as an indicator of where he should look. He found a

spike sticking out of the bottom of the vent. He surmised that had been driven in by

the bomb the air pirate had thrown.

The spike withdrew from the hole by something on the outside. He smiled when he

saw fragments of his daemon pouring into the hole. Some worked on the component,

others worked on the engine itself.

He checked the dashboard. The power numbers flipped higher. The damage bar

flipped to no damage as he watched it. The ants filled the holes in the hull as he

checked their work.

They had added some new components, but it didn’t look like anything that would

blow the ship up.

“Good job,” said Zachariah. The ants popped out of existence as their fuel wore off.

Zachariah did one more check before he shut the panels and made his way back to the

front of the cockpit. What would the modifications do?

He traded with Bolan who traded with Sola. He strapped in one handed as he looked

at the dashboard. The numbers rotated to the end as far as air speed. They should have

thought they would exceed the scale they had set down.

“The power is half, but we’re off the scale for our speed,” said Bolan from the

engineering panel.

“We’re halfway through the pass, Da,” said Sola. “How fast are we going?”

“Those are secondary concerns right now,” said Zachariah. “We need to get out of the

pass and knock as many enemy fliers as we can out of the way to do it. The rest will

have to fall in line behind us if they want to use us for a shield.”

“All right,” said Sola.

Gold Bug climbed over the eave of the opened chamber. He settled on Zachariah’s

shoulder. He went back into his metaphysical lair until he was needed again.

“We definitely need to add weapons if we want to keep flying,” said Zachariah.

Knife made a clicking sound as he fired at the plane with the exploding apples. He

seemed dogged in trying to hit that one particular jet over the others.

Lightning missed the Rocket as more of the pirates flew down from behind. Zachariah

wondered what would happen if he spun the flying machine in place. How fast could

he do it?

“Get ready, Knife,” said Zachariah. “I’m going to give you targets.”

He jerked on the stick, triggering the turn with a foot pedal. The Rocket spun in the

air so the nose pointed in the opposite direction. Knife fired balls at the two jets

behind them, spraying the force fields as fast as he could as the flying machine kept

spinning in the air.

“Don’t do that again, Da,” said Sola. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Be sick after we get out of this mess,” said Zachariah. He spotted Brother Rabbit

ahead. Should he act as cover for the pooka and his fairy dragon?

“We’re going to loop around and see if we took those two other flying machines with

Knife’s projector,” said Zachariah. “Keep your eyes open for more chasing us.”

“Ready,” said Bolan.

“Go ahead,” said Sola.

Zachariah turned, wishing he had made a spot where Knife could shoot from without

them opening the compartment up to the wind. He looked around for the enemy fliers.

He passed them, cutting down the middle of their twin paths. He saw a woman with

a lizard on her shoulder on his right. A white-haired woman with a stone in her

forehead passed on the left.

Knife blasted at both as they passed each other. The balls missed by inches as the

aircraft tilted by each other.

Zachariah spotted the Kellers still dueling with the black-haired woman with the

apples. They danced around each other like fighting birds, exchanging apples and

musical notes.

He had the throttle wide open. He aimed to fly as close to the apple thrower as he

could before circling around to help the others out. Hopefully the distraction of his

passage would give the Kellers an opening.

The flier saw the Rocket coming right at her. She tilted away from the other aircraft,

then spun wing over wing to hold in place to get a clear shot at the gray bullet. She

didn’t count on the Keller boys’ monster throwing a shovel at her as she tried to line

up on the flying machine. The digging implement bounced into an engine in the wing.

An explosion marked her going down to the valley’s floor.

The musical Keller gave Zachariah an all clear sign with one hand before playing four

chords on his instrument.

“All right,” said Zachariah. “Let’s see if we can help Brother Rabbit out.”

“Did you see that shovel, Da?,” asked Sola.

“What about it?,” asked Zachariah.

“I think it was ours,” said Sola.

“That’s unlikely,” said Zachariah.

“I’m sure that was the same shovel,” said Sola. “Where did you get it?”

“It was leaning against the Rocket when I came back from switching places with

Octo,” said Zachariah.

“Can we worry about the shovel later?,” said Bolan. “We still have to get through the

pass, avoid the killer women fliers, and beat everyone to Lobster Castle.”

“And there’s the thunderstorm coming into the pass after us,” said Zachariah. “Only

it doesn’t look like a normal thunderstorm.”

He pointed at the large gray cloud crackling in front of them. He eyeballed the

distance and felt the cloud moved faster than it should have been. The idea of an

artificial cloud prompted two things in his brain.

Why didn’t he think of that for the Rocket?

What did the cloud hide from view?

He turned in a circle to head after the rest of the fliers. Lighting missed the Rocket as

he blasted down the valley.

“We might be facing a leviathan,” he said. “This could be bad for us.”

“What do you mean a leviathan?,” asked Sola.

“I think the cloud is hiding a flying machine big enough to carry the little fliers we

have been dealing with, armed enough to shoot lightning at us as it comes, and fast

enough to catch us if we don’t get out of here,” said Zachariah. “We might have to

climb out of the pass and head over the peaks and down the other side to get away

from that thing.”

“Why are they attacking the race?,” asked Bolan. “That’s sure to draw the attention

of the officials.”

“What will the officials do about it?,” asked Zachariah. “The only ones who can get

up here are the Green Lights. The Reach can’t reach up here to enforce the racing

commission’s rules.”

“How do you want to do this?,” asked Bolan.

“We run,” said Zachariah. “If we have to climb over the pass and default to another

route, then that’s what we have to do. We definitely need to stay away from that cloud

since we don’t know what’s inside it and if the Rocket can take a blast of lightning.”

Gear Octo had turned back to take the attack to their unknown enemies. He used a

spinning projectile thrower to send slugs at the four fighters trying to chase down the

Kellers.

The boys slung musical blasts behind them as they flew up the pass. Some of the

blasts cut close to their fellow pilot. He buzzed them, gesturing at them to watch what

they were doing.

“Concentrate fire on the rearmost jet, Knife,” said Zachariah. “Try for the engines. If

you can block them, that will knock them out of the air without having to damage the

plane itself.”

The Rocket closed on the melee. Spheres of light cut through the air. One of the

bubbles hit the white-haired woman’s plane. A glow erupted around her. The field

exploded.

“Did you see that?,” asked Bolan.

“I saw it,” said Zachariah. “I don’t know what to do about that.”

“I do,” said Sola. “Get us in close, Da.”

Zachariah maneuvered after the flier. He hoped his daughter knew what she was

doing. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Hardy standing in the open window. He

brought the Rocket close to the pirate. She glared at them. Blue light glowed in the

stone in her forehead. Hardy launched, blasting across the space and punching

through the tail of her pirate ship. He arced around and landed on the outside skin of

their flying machine.

The white-haired pirate went into a spin and headed for the floor of the valley below.

“Good job, Hardy,” said Sola.

“Do you think he can take the other pirates?,” asked Zachariah. “We can get him

close enough if the Kellers get out of the way.”

“Big rabbit on the scene,” said Bolan. “Big rabbit.”

Brother Rabbit and Pearl blocked the passage with bodies grown to gigantic size. His

long ears pointed behind him. He brought up a shovel and swung it with both hands.

The blade, as big as one of the flying machines, knocked one of the jets out of the air.

The other two turned to retreat from the hulking monster.

“He has our shovel,” said Sola. “How did he get it?”

“I think we’re safe for the moment,” said Zachariah. “Let’s button up and fly out of

here.”

Hardy and Knife climbed back into the Rocket. Zachariah closed the lid. He checked

the flipping numbers. He didn’t know how fast they were going, but they were at the

top of the scale.

Brother Rabbit and Pearl shrank to their normal flying proportions. The pooka held

up the shovel over his head and shook it. The Shae dragon streamed through the sky.

Gear Octo flew up beside the Rocket and gave a good job signal with his hand. He

pressed the throttle of his jet forward and he rocketed after Brother Rabbit.

“How did he get our shovel?,” asked Sola.

“Magic,” said Zachariah.

“How did he get so big?,” asked Bolan.

“Magic,” said Zachariah.

“The edge of the pass is coming up, Da,” said Sola.

“Good,” said Zachariah. “We definitely need to check the repairs Gold Bug did as

soon as we reach Lobster Castle.”

“Do you think the Rocket will fail?,” asked Bolan.

“No,” said Zachariah. “But Gold Bug’s work is fragile. We need to make sure the

parts will keep working to the end of this leg of the race at least.”

“Right,” said Bolan. “I’ll get Knife to check it with his scanner when we land for the

day.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “How long do you think we have before we reach Lobster

Castle, Sola?”

“Three, or four, hours at the speed we’re going,” said Sola. “We need to turn a little

to the right to stay on course when we get to the end of the valley.”

“All right,” said Zachariah. “I wonder how fast we’re going.”

“There’s some more racers ahead,” said Bolan. “I think I can see Sir Dormir’s tree.”

“Propellor and natural animals,” said Zachariah. The Riordianians sprinted across the

sky on their flying creatures. “We’re going to pass them if the patch holds.”

“You’ll be big enough to do that too, Hardy,” said Sola. She rubbed the wing case of

the giant beetle.

“We’ll have to build a cargo bay for the Rocket if he does,” said Bolan.